The Dribble: Raptors show Babcock the door

Rob Babcock, the former VP of player personel in Minnesota and now former GM of the Toronto Raptors was thanked for his services after a brief yet tumultuous run atop the organization. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Wayne Embry who served the Raptors as "senior basketball advisor". It seems the Raptors have found someone to blame for their poor play and bad luck of late perhaps even blaming Babcock for the embarassment of falling victim to the Kobe Bryant show last Sunday night.

The man with a 3 year plan was cut short almost half way in, the moves made this year were decent ones; his draft picks have blossomed when at one point because of the other picks available they were viewed as blunders, and his trade of Rafer Alston for Mike James is now viewed as a (lucky?) stroke of genius. Yet the Vince Carter trade is the move that did him in, mid-season last year Babcock traded an undervalued/underperforming Vince to the New Jersey Nets for Eric Wiliams, Aaron Williams, Alonzo Mourning (who never reported to the team) and a pick. Ever since that time the writing has been on the wall and Bobcock's future has been in jeopardy.

Richard Peddie, the head of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment goes on to justify the timing of the dismissal by stating:

" In fairness to Rob, once we knew a change was necessary,

we didn’t think it was right to have him continue.

And from a team perspective, making this move today

better positions us as we look toward the trade deadline

and then the draft this spring. We also feel that in moving Wayne

into the role of general manager on an interim basis

we will be better able to develop Sam Mitchell’s growth

toward being a very good NBA coach during the second half of the season"

"while some progress has been made recently,

those results have not met our expectations.

We have plans in place that we believe will lead us